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cooperative economy

The Union Co-op Model: this country’s largest industrial labor union teamed up with the world’s largest worker-cooperative to present a plan that would put people to work in labor-driven enterprises that build worker power and communities, too.

In the middle of the Greek monetary (Euro) crisis, people have discovered a way around the system that's been rigged against them. They are setting up local currency and exchange systems and doing business, effectively, without government money. The breathless story can be found at Raw Story and it is well worth reading and thinking about. But, for me, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Jim Hightower, over at Nation of Change published quite a long and detailed article on Cooperatives as a practical and desirable alternative to the usual Corporations. Cooperatives Over Corporationshas a lot of valuable information about the size of the movement here in the United States and some terrific comments about why Cooperatives are so preferable to Corporations.

I bet you haven't heard of the global movement that's demanding a democratic economy. The one that's unsatisfied with the corporate business model and the way banks dominate the system. The one that's been occupying the social change arena since 1844. They're the Co-Operative Movement.

The early characterization of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement as a group of rudderless kids with no real chance of success was fantastically misplaced. The 99 percent continues to occupy more cities, more headlines and more of our collective imagination.

Local currencies generally develop for one of two reasons — the desire for local economic control (for a variety of reasons, from democracy to sustainability to social justice,) and a scarcity of national currency. In the current situation, both reasons weigh heavy.

Equal Exchange of W. Bridgewater, MA, the worker cooperative which initiated fair trade with coffee farmers more than 20 years ago and one of the worker cooperative movement's oldest and more successful democratic organizations released a statement Oct. 27, 2011 "strongly" supporting, and urging others to support Occupy Wall Street.

#OccupyWallStreet has cracked open a little hole in history, creating a moment where some of the very core institutions of our economy are called into question. Along with indignation and outrage, there is a certain excitement in the air. Things that have been terrifyingly stuck seem to be moving. Something seems possible today that wasn't just a month ago.